Author’s Note: I stopped blogging regularly in 2020, but now in 2024, I am using Google Photos, Google Maps timeline, and my old planners to recreate a post about what we were up to each month!
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On the first of December this year, I decided to do a Bonus Thanksgiving. While we had very much enjoyed the proper Thanksgiving that Rachel hosted for us, I was missing some of our favorite foods from the holiday. Plus my absolute favorite part is all of the leftovers, and I needed to do my own cooking to get those. So on a week after the real holiday we did a bonus holiday complete with a turkey and all the trimmings. I enjoyed cooking in my new kitchen!
On Friday the 2nd, Steve visited again and we took a walk down to show him our new local castle. While we were taking a picture with the Christmas tree out front, a staff person came by and heard Joel and my American accents. He thought we had come from far away so he offered to let us in to see the castle even though it is closed in winter! We assured him we lived just down the street and would have many chances to visit, but he insisted on letting us in anyway. It was pretty cool to get a private tour of the castle grounds.
That evening I drove up to Monmouth for their annual Christmas dinner at the Royal Oak pub. I wore another epic charity shop find for the jumper contest but I didn’t win this year. (I think they just didn’t want me winning two years in a row!)
On Saturday I went back up to Monmouth again, this time for the Lantern parade. We decided that as some outreach, we would set up a free hot chocolate stall at the parade. We gave away over 100 cups of hot chocolate and information about our Christmas services. It was a great way to connect with our community!
Since we were still in the process of moving in and unpacking, we were also in the process of building some Ikea furniture. This house didn’t come with nearly as much built-in storage as our Monmouth manse, so we had to build wardrobes for our bedroom. It was not a fun process but worth it to have somewhere to hang everything in the end!
We also bought and installed some new light fixtures. I have always loved this style of light (Moravian star, I think?) and I was delighted to finally get to have some in my house - we installed four throughout the downstairs and upstairs hallways.
On Sunday the 11th, I started decorating for Christmas (much later than my usual!) I really loved the look of this wreath on our stained glass front door.
And when I went to Trellech that evening for worship, there was some good and proper snow!!
On Tuesday the 13th, we went into the Trellech Primary school to share the Nativity story. I got to play Mary, fulfilling a childhood dream of mine, haha.
I slowly kept getting the house decorated for Christmas, though I didn’t do as much as I would normally. So instead of sharing my own decorations I’ll share this photo from Gwehelog Chapel. They always go all out with fantastic Christmas decorations!
We had some drama around curtains in the new manse. They are supposed to be provided by the circuit. But while the manse was rented previously, they had removed all of their curtains. When we moved in, no one could find the old ones, so we went without for a few weeks while trying to get this all sorted. In the end we found some curtains from the Cheptsow manse that fit our windows and the circuit let us pick out new ones for the rest. So I spent an afternoon with Rachel as she helped me measure the windows and shop for curtains at Dunelm.
Then before we knew it, it was Joel’s birthday on the 23rd! I was too lazy to make a cake this year so I got a dark chocolate cherry flavored one from Iceland. I don’t like cherry so Joel got the whole cake to himself!
On Christmas Eve I led two services, and then on Christmas Day I was delighted to wear a new stole that the ladies at Trellech had made for me. Look how pretty!
And, of course, no Christmas Day is complete without watching the Queen’s King’s Speech. It was quite the change to go from Queen Elizabeth to King Charles. I’m still getting used to that!
On Boxing Day we went to Steve’s and his whole family came over to hang out in his basement flat. I got to hold a very new baby which was fabulous! I won’t post pictures of someone else’s baby though so you’ll just have to imagine how cute he was.
On the 29th we had a game night with Amy and Ben and they introduced us to a new game that I no longer remember. I believe it was Gladiator themed!
On New Year’s Eve, Steve came over and we hung out and watched the fireworks!
And that’s a wrap on an eventful 2022!
XOXO, Bethany